March '09 is shifted to the right of where it should be, making Bush's latter climb appear less rapid than it should be. and the beginning of Obama's appear to not level off as much as it should.

Interesting that the graph is perfectly straight, which is a give-away that it's faked.

Another point is that it gives a source, "BLS" but what is that???

"Another point is that it gives a source, 'BLS' but what is that???"

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

What is significant about those dates?

Dec 07: Recession begins, 7.2 million unemployed (End of Nov/First of Dec 07). 7.7 million unemployed (end of Dec 07)

http://www.bls.gov/opub/...d/2007/dec/wk2/art01.htm
http://www.bls.gov/opub/...d/2008/jan/wk1/art02.htm

Sept 08: The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 introduced in Congress on 9/20/2008, signed into law 10/3/2008. End of Sept, 9.5 million unemployed.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/...d/2008/oct/wk1/art02.htm

Mar 09: The Restore Employment (HIRE) Act signed into law on Mar 18, 2009. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 signed into law Feb 17, 2009. End of March, 13.2 million unemployed.

http://www.bls.gov/opub/...d/2009/apr/wk1/art01.htm

Jun 10: VP Biden states "there's no possibility to restore 8 million jobs lost in the Great Recession". Last reported number of unemployed, 15 million (May 2010).

http://www.bls.gov/opub/...ed/2010/ted_20100610.htm

Does this statement by Biden mean that these bills/programs are a failure?

UCC Love-of-Truth Guy stated, "Interesting that the graph is perfectly straight, which is a give-away that it's faked."

I have to wonder what idiot put that label on that graph. Clearly, that heading is no where near accurate.

If you change the heading to "Unemployed Americans", then it starts to make sense. Those numbers are fairly close to what is reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Mark da Shark said @ 5

If you change the heading to "Unemployed Americans", then it starts to make sense. Those numbers are fairly close to what is reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Read the Media Matters link I gave ya at the end the article. The numbers don't make sense and are still misleading even after changing the chart's title. Unless you mean "fairly" in the same sense they mean "fair and balanced".

Yes, I did read the article.

I am not making a claim that the gragh is correct. In fact, I believe that MM was generous in saying that this "Worst chart I've seen all day". The staight lines, ect, makes it one of the the worst chart that I have seen in sometime. My 3 year old niece could have done a better job of making this type of chart.

But those numbers are roughly BLS numbers, so unless you are making the claim that we can't trust the BLS, those numbers do make sense.

VP Biden claimed that we lost 8 million jobs since the recession started. Nov 07, 7.2 million unemployed (linked in #4). Add his 8 million, that would be 15.2 million. Before today's reported, the BLS said we had 15 million unemployed. That seems to make sense.

No mainstream news outlet offers real news. Fox is just more forthright about it. It wears its white hood out in the open vs soft-brownshirt jargon of Clark Hoyt types. They just regurgitate centrally distributed fascist-leaning slants distributed by Associated Press and suchlike.

Labor statistics are probably the single most abused of the "lies, damned lies, and statistics" that are out there.

There are "seasonal adjustments," "underemployed," "working poor," and then the massive number of "discouraged" workers who don't necessarily appear in the "numbers" but are still out there, hungry, sick, willing to work, but unable to do so.

While I don't promote Faux New's agenda of bashing Obama, I do believe that he missed his mark by not making a bigger deal of the disgusting PIT OF DESPAIR AND RUIN that Bush and the Rethuglicans put us into during their 8 years of reckless spending and tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy and unfunded wars. Now, Obama has to OWN this Depression, and the fact is, by his compromises and pandering to the right wing (of his own party and the Rethuglicans) he has not sufficiently funded recovery efforts while giving trillions to the Banks and military/industrial/security/crisis complex.

We are DECADES from recovering the middle class that has been destroyed in the last 10 years, and Obama is going to have to OWN that problem, whether he wants to or not. Had he chosen on day 1 to indict and try and convict the criminals that came before him, he would at least have somebody to point to when asked how this happened, but by letting them walk free, he's stuck.

TRUE unemployment is at 20%. Go into any inner city, and you'll see that. As the right wing finishes tearing giant holes in the safety net, and the crime and discontent grows, you'll start to see it much more clearly.

Faux News may be creating false charts for all the wrong reasons, but the story they tell is, unfortunately, true: LIFE SUCKS IN AMERICA IF YOU ARE NOT IN THE TOP 1% THAT OWNS THE GOVERNMENT, COURTS AND EVERYTHING ELSE.

the same week the twin towers fell...china entered the world trade org....there went our manufacturing base and it will nevr return....with the loss of the good paying jobs manufacturing represented many of the consumer industries are fighting to survive...throw in the destruction of our natural resources like fish in the gulf,poisoning the water in the ne with fractured drilling and to say we are decades away from recovery is optimistic to say the least

It may have been the one true and honest thing that McCain said during the campaign while at a stop in one of those devastated northeastern manufacturing states (Michigan? Ohio?): "Those jobs are gone and they are NOT coming back."

CharlieL

Exactly...McCain said that in Michigan, it was before McCain had to pander to the hard right in the GOP. He was campaigning against Romney who was lying through his plastic face about auto jobs returning with his policies. The MSM ignored McCain's painful but honest campaign and integrity and focused on Romney's Michigan roots.

Anyway...by the time of the GOP convention McCain had gone batshit nuts like the rest of the hard right GOPers...John McCain pre-convention 2008 was the GOP's last shot at sanity and integrity...